little snake...

[pitbulllady]

He was too small to take the Jack Russell

As for the snake... For hell's sake, if a person cannot keep their boids contained, they should not have them. Sort of like how that one family who lost a toddler to a python... I have no sympathy for them, as they were polluting the gene pool.

Oh, it gets even better, with that story out of Florida. The guy who owned the snake wasn't even the kid's father; he was just the bf who happened to be shacking up with the mama at the time. The snake had no cage-it was being kept inside a laundry bag inside a 20-gallon aquarium with no lid, just a plastic tarp "secured" with clothes pins. When Animal Control brought the snake in, this nearly nine-foot-long Burm weighed only five pounds. I've had adult Black Rat Snakes that weighed that much! When interviewed by the police, the older children told them that the guy was actually "out buying more weed" when the snake escaped, and that he had not fed the snake in months because "he spend all his money on weed". If anyone can call it like it happens and not hold back, it's a kid! I don't feel sorry for this guy in the least, but I do feel sorry for the toddler and the snake, both innocent victim's of stupidity and neglect here. The child wasn't even related to the guy who brought the snake into the home, and the poor animal, the one who has really been demonized the most, certainly had no choice in how it was treated. The man is a chronic drug abuser with a rap sheet a mile long and multiple convictions who should have never even been allowed near a child, but I'll agree totally that he and the "baby mama" are the lowest life forms in this whole tragedy, along with the politicians and the HSUS who are milking the "fear factor" of this incident to push their agendas through and stop ALL of us from being able to keep snakes. When will the public wake up and see that it's NOT the animals themselves but how they are kept that results in tragedies?

pitbulllady

[Stefan-A]

As for the snake... For hell's sake, if a person cannot keep their boids contained, they should not have them. Sort of like how that one family who lost a toddler to a python... I have no sympathy for them, as they were polluting the gene pool.

Eugenics for the win, eh?

[GradStudentLeper]

Eugenics for the win, eh?

Hell yeah. Some people are just too stupid to reproduce.

[Zephyr]

Eugenics for the win, eh?

I see what you did thar. lol

[charles parenteau]

I think this python was big enough to kill that Jack Russel without underestimating the Jack Russel.Python and boa can escape just like garter snake but more often its a human mistake

[Didymus20X6]

My brother has a pair of Jack Russell's. They're not very big at all. I imagine a 6ft. boa could take either one of them easy.

[Thamnophis]

I think this python was big enough to kill that Jack Russel without underestimating the Jack Russel.Python and boa can escape just like garter snake but more often its a human mistake

I agree about the Jack Russell. I work with these pythons and a python of this size can easily kill and eat an adult jack Russell.

[GradStudentLeper]

Wow... No wonder it went after the toddler, it was starving.

But people wont get wise. Why? Because snakes are of the Devil and humans can do no wrong (unless they are brown and/or foreign).

[ssssnakeluvr]

maybe we need to clean some of the lawmakers out of the gene pool!

[Didymus20X6]

In all fairness, there have been some pet owners in Florida who really should never have been allowed to own snakes. Some hyperactive spoiled teenager, or some drugged-up hippie who goes to the pet store one day and decides that owning a Burmese is "sooo frickin' kewl, d00d!" A swamp full of thriving, breeding giant snakes that are killing off the local alligator population. Yes, neglegent pet owners are also contributing to the endangerment of a local species.

My solution is quite simple: if someone wants to buy an exotic snake, they must be licensed to own it. Just like dog owners are required to license their dogs, exotic reptile owners be required to license their exotics, especially the dangerous ones, like the Burmese. They would have to be required to show they have adequate ability to care for the animal, including a sufficiently large enclosure, with an internal habitat suitable for the animal's needs, and can readily obtain proper food supplies. They should also be able to prove - perhaps by way of academic credentials, a simple test, or prior ownership of other species - that they can actually provide the right care for the animal.

And how can these policies be enforced? Easy: the pet stores and pet traders who make the sales must verify that those making the purchases are capable of caring for the animals in the right way.

A druggie with no experience of caring for snakes, with no enclosure to keep it safely, and no real concern about the animal or others, who just wants one because "It's soo kewl, man!" should not be allowed to buy one, any more than he should be allowed to buy a gun to rob a liquor store with. But an experienced reptile handler or trained herpetologist with a giant plexiglass enclosure for the animal should be allowed to keep it.

Of course, exceptions can be made for people keeping locally available harmless species, such as garters, corns, or milks.

Bottom line: if the species is dangerous, it should be legally treated the same way a weapon is. Is the owner qualified to keep it? Are they able to keep it safely? And is there some assurance that it won't become a threat to the public? If the answers to all these questions is "Yes", then by all means, allow the person to purchase the snake. Otherwise, do not even allow them to make the purchase, because sooner or later, that snake, through no fault of its own, will become a public nuissance and an environmental threat.